This invention concerns a utensil designed for microwave cooking. To achieve the versatility in microwave cooking that is expected in gas and electric cooking, a microwave oven must be supplied with as many different type and size cooking utensils as are available for gas and electric cooking. Microwave oven cooking utensils should be specially designed to capitalize on microwave energy's special characteristics and desirable cooking features. Numerous novel cooking containers have already been developed for microwave cooking, for example, my U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,539,751, 3,701,872, 3,731,037, 3,854,023, 3,881,027 and 3,777,099 and my copending related application U.S. Ser. No. 400,146.
My copending related application U.S. Ser. No. 400,416 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,854,023 and 3,881,027 teach using the latent heat of vaporization evolved from selectively heating one part of a food to heat a second part of a food. My U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,701,872 and 3,777,099 teach ways of shielding condensed water and rendered by-products from further heating in a microwave oven in competition with a heating article and so needlessly waste power. Others, as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,230,864, have described apparatus which shield by-products from microwave exposure so as not to needlessly waste microwave power heating said by-products during said exposure. This invention teaches how to trap evolved water vapor while trapping by-products and how to condense said water vapor to return its latent heat of vaporization to the heating system. Other improvements and novel combinations will become evident in what follows.